On 7 November 2025, major changes to the Bulgarian Protection of Competition Act (PCA) went into effect, further modernising Bulgarian competition rules and equipping the Competition Protection Commission (CPC) with new powers to combat antitrust infringements and unfair trading practices.
The changes to the PCA include:
- Merger notification regime: To address “killer acquisitions” and other gaps in turnover-based thresholds, two new ways to initiate the merger clearance process with the CPC have been introduced:
- voluntary pre-merger notification when the statutory thresholds are not met; and
- the CPC may order the parties to file a notification within six months of completing the transaction if the parties' combined Bulgarian turnover exceeds BGN 25 million (approximately EUR 12.8 million) in the preceding year and if the transaction raises serious concerns about impediments to effective competition (i.e. if only one of the two turnover criteria is met).
- Unfair trading practices in the food supply chain: A generic ban has now been introduced on any act or omission by a buyer that contravenes fair trading practices and harms, or may harm, the supplier. This supplements the current list of specifically prohibited behaviour. The maximum fine for these breaches will increase to 10% of the offender’s total turnover (rather than the previous fixed cap of BGN 300,000), which is in line with the maximum sanctions for antitrust infringements. There is a grace period of 3 months before the generic ban takes effect.
- The CPC's powers for monitoring implementation of its decisions have increased. Undertakings are required to inform the CPC about the implementation of decisions to terminate infringing practices, behavioural or structural remedies, and commitments and obligations. The CPC will be able to conduct follow-up reviews and open new proceedings if necessary.
- A voluntary settlement mechanism has been introduced for antitrust infringement proceedings in Bulgaria for the first time. Until the deadline for written defences, undertakings may request a settlement by either acknowledging or not contesting their participation in an infringement. The CPC will adopt rules that clarify how the settlement process will work in practice. These rules will include a methodology for reducing the fines for the parties involved in the settlement.
- Dawn raids: The CPC has the power to conduct on-site inspections (i.e. dawn raids) during “sector inquiries”, focusing on assessing the state of competition in a particular sector. The CPC will conduct dawn raids when the sector analysis reveals practices by participants in the relevant market that have resulted in the prevention, restriction, or distortion of competition in the analysed sector, industry, sub-sector or region. The CPC may also appoint an external IT specialist to assist with dawn raids.
- The CPC is added to the list of authorities that can request retained data when investigating prohibited agreements and cartels. From now on, the CPC will be able to request traffic data from telecom operators to investigate and prove infringing practices. This data includes:
- tracking and identifying the source of the connection;
- identifying the date, time and duration of the connection;
- identifying the end devices involved.
For more information on competition law in Bulgaria, contact your CMS client partner or the CMS experts who wrote this article: Nevena Radlova, Anna-Maria Spasova.
